Kit Figsto

This is a point I try to make often when people complain about OT remakes. Those sets aren't targeted towards the people who are into LSW enough to post about it on Reddit or Instagram, they're targeted towards the people that were either too young or had no interest in LSW when the last version of the X-Wing or Landspeeder were released. I've brought this up before on here, but when I was a kid, I first got into LSW around 2005-06. The only set available with the main OT cast was the X-Wing, which was a Toys R Us exclusive, and was too expensive for young me to buy. It probably took 7-8 years before I had acquired the entire OT main cast in some outfit or another. I know that remakes aren't our favorite, but they are important to help out newer collectors.

I've thought about the selling point, but at the same time, this didn't really seem to affect the other licensed series - they just did a mixture of exclusive characters or variants to where they can still put appealing figures in sets. A SW series, for example - you could do a couple of variations of main OT characters that aren't as conducive to sets or aren't on shelves right now - maybe stuff like ghost Obi-Wan, Cloud City Lando (since apparently they only put him out every 20 years or so), or a highly detailed Vader. Those figures would realistically most likely come in a high dollar + desirable location set (Ewok Village, Cloud City, MBS Death Star, etc), and aren't going to be the main selling point if they do put that set out, so even if they did release this hypothetical CMF, and then two years later put out a Cloud City set, the set itself would still be attractive regardless of whether people already had Lando. Then, you could do some characters from properties not getting sets - Rebels, Rogue One, Solo, etc. Throw in a couple of characters that haven't been made in a while/brand new characters (say, P2 Wolffe), and then a George Lucas figure, and I feel like that wouldn't really cannibalize sales of sets. And again, the fact that they're sticking desirable figures in microfighters now seems to point to the idea that they're not as worried about losing a selling point. As long as they're not putting out multiple sets with Rex at the same time plus a Rex CMF, they'd be fine. Or, just do something where the Rex on shelves is P2, and in the series is P1.

This is something that I think the brand Brick Craft has sort of done. AFAIK, they're only at Walmart in the US, but they have sort of taken the LEGO flowers line and buildable objects line, thrown in some licenses, and reduced the price dramatically. I bought one of the MTV licensed sets the other day, a little 100-piece boombox, and it was $5. The last time I owned a LEGO-adjacent brand were some Mega Bloks from like 20 years ago, which clearly felt different from LEGO. I was surprised at how similar this was to LEGO. Every single piece was also an existing LEGO piece, and the quality felt pretty solid. The main difference that I could tell was in the "Technic" pins - the handle assembly for the radio has a lot more play in it than LEGO pieces would if you push down on it, and the friction of the pins themselves were very different from piece to piece, which I've never encountered with LEGO. I assume that the molds are just a bit cheaper, so there's less precision in the dimensions of the pieces. Anyway, these seem to be decently popular, especially since they have some major licenses, so I wouldn't be surprised to see other companies jump on board, since it's much easier to do what LEGO is doing if you take stuff like minifigures out of the equation.

Ha, shows what I know! I honestly can't keep track of the amount of new molds that exist today. I felt like 10-15 years ago, it was a much bigger deal when new parts came out, but now, my only real exposure to a new part is if it gets included in a set that I buy, but half of the time, I think "Oh, I guess this is new!" and it turns out that it came out 5 years ago. I suppose with CMFs, I have the opposite issue, where I just assume any part that I hadn't seen before was included in a City/Friends set Anyway, I think my point still stands about the hypothetical existence of a SW CMF series. If they could, they would.

Just ran to a different Target on my lunch break, no luck on the Beastmaster. I found 4 S27 figures in the checkout lanes, but none in the actual LEGO aisle or the Valentine's area. Three of the cat lovers and one pirate. Looks like I might have to hit the LEGO store next week unless I can track one down before then.

My point is that if they could, there would be no reason not to do it in a CMF. The reason that CMFs have more detail/new prints/sometimes even new molds is because of the budget they get. The margins on them are probably super high, because it's like six pieces for $5, and generally each series as a whole has maybe 1-2 new molds tops. For a 12 figure series, that's 2 out of about 72 pieces that are new, the rest are typically recolors of existing molds. I would also assume that they're being produced in much higher quantities. They're also not unwilling to put desirable figures in small sets, otherwise things like the Rex microfighter or upcoming Plo Koon microfighter wouldn't exist. If they were able to do that with JUST the minifigure, people would be buying up multiples of them for customs or whatever, whereas doing that with a $12 set is a little bit less massable.

Also, the fact that other brands have to abide by this really lends credence to it being true. The only SW character merch that I can think of that's even close to action figures, besides minifigures, are Funko (which ONLY do bobbleheads for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, both brands that Hasbro had the action figure license for, the rest are just normal figurines), those mini blind bag keychains (which don't have articulation and are keychains), and minifigures. The only thing I can find that toes the line is some Fisher-Price stuff aimed for toddlers/young children, which I would imagine is okay because it's not undercutting Hasbro. LEGO or Funko, on the other hand, have enough appeal to both kids and adults to where there is competition. If, say, Mattel, were also putting out 6 inch, highly detailed SW figures, then I'd be inclined to believe the exclusive deal thing isn't true, but I feel like that whole "LEGO is lying about the Hasbro deal" thing was just a rumor spread by some of the more toxic YouTube/streamer people to get the internet all riled up and mad at LEGO, because that's pretty much what that crowd aims to do. As you said, a Star Wars CMF would print money, and LEGO knows that. People are already obsessed with the highly detailed customs that get sold on Instagram and stuff, can you imagine stuff like a Captain Rex or Commander Cody with the extra level of detail that CMFs get? Those wouldn't even make it to store shelves before being bought.

The scalping on the Wolfpack figure is absurd. I know there's been figures in the past that have been popular, but I've never seen it to this extent, especially with the cheapest resale price being $10. I found a full end cap at Target today (first time I've seen that in probably 3-4 years), checked like 50 figures, and wouldn't you know it, I found all 11 except that one. It doesn't help that the distribution of CMFs, at least in the US, sucks. I don't know if this is only a problem around me, but Target stores seem to get one big shipment (IF they get them in at all), and then nothing else, so if you miss them the first time, you're SOL. I also can't tell you how many times I'll check item inventory at a Target, see that they supposedly have some in stock, and then go, and can't find any, checking the toys, seasonal, and checkout lanes. Walmart seems to be a bit better, but still not great. I've had the best luck at places like Barnes and Noble or Kohl's, but they don't always seem to get them in. I miss the days when these were first coming out, and it seemed like every store was consistently fully stocked for a couple of months.

Right, but not necessarily everyone has the same sentiment there. I can see the flip side of this being just as common, with parents buying a set with more variety for their kid, or a kid choosing the set with different figures as opposed to three or four of the same. I can 1000% picture my parents, if kid me was given the option between a set with 4 Clones and, say, the Clone/Jedi BP, encouraging me to choose the Clone/Jedi set because it gives me more variety to play with. Frankly, both as a kid and now, that's the one I would've gone with anyway.

I know that some people are going to be annoyed with that choice, but I'm surprised that we haven't had either that or Tattooine Luke made yet. In fact, the only Luke Brickheadz variations we've gotten are ROTJ and Dagobah, both in multi-packs. The choices for Brickheadz characters has been rather random, looking back. The sequels got good coverage because the line came out when we were getting full movie waves, and then most of the OT main characters have gotten the Brickheadz treatment, but it's been a rather random assortment when it comes to the OT/PT.

The obvious answer - the set is actually a Commander Bly battlepack. Includes 4 Commander Blys, plus two Commander Bly battle droids!

I think they're basically the pop-culture version of the flower/buildable object series. I'm on the young end of AFOLs - I think I'm considered an old Gen Z or very young Millennial, but I never really had a "dark ages" - I've just been into LEGO ever since I first got into it as a kid and never stopped. However, I know people my age that buy a lot of the flowers or plant life sets and aren't necessarily even LEGO fans. It's become a lot more socially normal for younger adults to be into LEGO in a way that it might've been seen as "weird" ten years ago, and I think these buildable objects are a reflection of that. If someone likes the idea of a displayable LEGO object but doesn't want a flower bouquet or whatever, a buildable R2-D2 or Mandalorian helmet would be a pretty cool display piece on a desk. Now, am I surprised that they've sold THIS well, enough to warrant the amount that we're getting? Absolutely.

Agree. I am 100% a defender of OT remakes, because I remember as a kid, growing up in the late 2000s, we got a very minimal amount of OT remakes from the early 2000s. I would look on Brickset all the time at the cool older OT sets from the early 2000s, but at that point, we were either getting entirely prequel/Clone Wars stuff, or most of the OT stuff were new vehicles. To be clear, new stuff is totally fine with me (and in this era, it was a lot of new stuff that unquestionably needed to get sets - the 2007 Echo Base, for example), but it was probably 8 years into my collecting years before I even had the entire main OT cast in minifigure form. Point being, I think it's important for them to have these staple vehicles/minifigures on shelves at any given time, for the people who weren't collecting last time a Landspeeder or Snowspeeder was released. Yeah, those of us that collect enough to be posting on Eurobricks have probably been around enough to see 4-5 releases of it, but a 7 year old hasn't. That said, with the amount of properties coming out, I think it's completely warranted for them to sacrifice a remake slot to give a set or two to a D+ show. This is especially true that, at this point, unless a movie/show is a smash hit, it's just not being revisited by LEGO at all. We literally got one wave each of Rogue One and Solo stuff and likely will never get anything again. Book of Boba Fett, and Kenobi, same deal. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that we can at least get one set from a new show, if nothing else just to have the main characters and maybe a vehicle or location represented in LEGO. I'm not saying they need to put out five Acolyte sets every year, I'm just saying one single set, and then they can skip over it moving forward.

I think it's likely that we'll keep getting re-imagined sets from major 80s/90s themes, but I don't think they'll do every single subtheme, I think they'll stick to the favorites. I think it's plausible that we get sets from themes like Wolfpack or Ice Planet 2002, but doubtful that they go for themes like Spyrius or Knight's Kingdom I.

Yeah, I understand the excitement about new sets, but at the end of the day, it rarely makes a difference to me if I get a set on day one. I figured that I've already been waiting a few months for the release, I can go another couple of months and wait for a discount. The only real exceptions for me are if it's tied into a GWP, or if it's the Indy Tomb set that I bought on release day two years ago . I just don't feel a need to go buy every set immediately on release day every time.

I do agree that the set designs were excellent during that 2007-2012-ish period, and I think it's interesting that now, stuff like City has a weird identity happening, where some of the sets are very reminiscent of either classic town with a modern aesthetic (like that harbor you linked), or the late 2000s City style of larger vehicles/buildings with a lot of detail, but some are much more <insert that tiresome argument>. About half of the City line on shelves could probably be placed in with the City sets from 2011 without much issue, and the other half just seems completely different in both style and aesthetic. I somewhat disagree about the Ninjago/Monkie Kid/Dreamzzz point. While those sets specifically are similar, I think Dreamzzz is pretty distinct otherwise, most of the vehicles and locations are purely fantasy - a narwhal hot air balloon, crocodile car, flying school bus, giant plush bunny, etc. I've never been a huge Ninjago/Monkie Kid guy outside of a few sets, but it seems as if Monkie Kid is largely to appeal to the Chinese market (and evidently it does?), but I noticed Ninjago getting way more attention in the US in terms of marketing and shelf space in stores.

I think you're spot on. I have no issue with the increased number of 18+ sets and stuff geared towards kids (mechs/microfighters), I think the problem is that a larger and larger percentage of the line is devoted to these than playsets. If the 18+ stuff sells well enough to warrant more of it, I'd like to know why the playsets are being scaled back. Anecdotally, they seem to sell well, save for a few exceptions. Around me, pretty much all of the Star Wars sets, once they first comes out, are constantly in and out of stock for the first couple of months that they're around, even some of the stuff that aren't army builders. Like, the Dark Falcon and the Skeleton Crew ship aren't exactly shelf-warming around me, even though they're both large and expensive, and a bit more niche in their appeal. I guess I just don't see why we can't get even 3-4 more playsets per year than what we've been getting. Like I said, it doesn't have to come at the expensive of the 18+ or the kid-centric stuff - both clearly sell well if they're expanding the line, but it'd be great to not contract the playset portion of the line as a result.

See, I actually think that this is my biggest issue with the inundation of Clone stuff. We've been getting fewer and fewer mid-sized sets/location-based sets in the last few years. I recognize that part of this is due to higher prices, but it seems like now, there's a bunch of stuff in the $15-30 range, a couple of system sets in the $40-60 range, and then a bunch of stuff that's $90+. This is further exacerbated by the fact that basically everything in the $15-30 block right now is either a mech/Brickhead/micofighter (which I have no issue with, they serve their purpose and must be popular with kids if they keep making them), or is a Mando/Clone Wars set. The cheapest OT set on shelves is $40 (Rebel Scout Speeder/Imperial Dropship combo pack), the cheapest non-Clone prequel set is $70 (Sith Infiltrator), and the cheapest sequel set is...uh...nowhere to be found. I'd almost rather if they gave us some smaller vehicles/locations from the OT/non-Clone prequels/sequels, and then dedicated the larger price points ($60 and upward) to Clone stuff. Like, throw us an Endor BP, a First Order BP, a remake of the AOTC speeder chase for $50-60, and then, I don't know, a new Cloud Car or Snowspeeder or something for $40.

I would say though that, while some of this stuff is ROTS based, things like the 327th BP or UT-AT or Clone Turbo Tank were all featured in ROTS for a combined total of, like, eighteen seconds, and pretty much all in the background. They're much, much, much more prominent in properties like TCW or Battlefront or whatever. So, yes, if we're getting technical, they are likely ROTS sets (in the same way that the BARC set currently out is technically a Mandalorian set) but the contents are more closely aligned with the Clone Wars show/era. For me personally, I think this wave would be great if we could swap 3 of the 18+ buildable figures with a couple more system sets - OT, sequels, I don't really care, but just something beyond clones or Mandalorian. EDIT: and for the record, I do think it's great that we're getting so much new stuff. Both of the UCS vehicles (Jango's Slave I and AT-ST) sound awesome, an ARC-170 remake is due, and I know people have wanted a UT-AT for a while, I'd just like it if that wasn't basically the entire wave plus some other buildable figures.

Oops, yes, I did! And I agree, I guess my point there was just that I'd never really realized that most of the stuff that was supposedly the most innovative (according to some) were essentially just re-hashes of older themes. Not that it made them bad, because I do really enjoy a lot of sets from that era, but it's interesting nonetheless, at least to me.

Oh, I just realized something - if the Turbo Tank is real, I was guessing a 4+ set, but could it be from the ships line? The piece count is a little light, but maybe?

Huh, a UCS AT-ST remake isn't what I expected, but the last one was almost 20 years ago, so I guess it's not too crazy. I'm curious to see how they do it, I think the 2006 one actually holds up pretty well, all things considered. I assume the 327th BP will be 3 regular clones + Bly and, like, a swamp speeder? So basically a recolor of the 332nd BP. Happy for those that have been wanting the 327th, but would it be crazy to get a battle pack that isn't Clones? I think we've had the Hoth one and that's basically it in like the last five years. I'm assuming the Turbo Tank is a 4+ set, yeah? I wonder if they include a desirable minifigure in it.

Even looking at this year, in terms of just system scale sets, we have: Prequels - 2 (one of these being the droid troop transport GWP, so I hesitate to even count that) Clone Wars - 1 OT - 4 Sequels - 0 Mandalorian - 3 (but one of these is essentially a prequels set since it was the ROTS flashback, if it didn't come with Grogu it'd have quite literally nothing else to do with Mando) Skeleton Crew - 1 Ahsoka - 1 Rebuild the Galaxy - 3 That's it. Going back to 2023, the breakdown is: Prequels - 0 Clone Wars - 4 OT - 2 Sequels - 1/2 (the holiday diorama sorta counts?) Mandalorian - 4 Ahsoka - 2 If you're a prequel fan but not necessarily a clone fan, there has been essentially a single set to buy in the last two years, Maul's ship, and that's not even getting into the lack of anything related to Solo, Rogue One, or the sequels. I think the issue is that, as much as it stinks to have the system line shrunk, people are, apparently, buying the 18+ stuff en masse, because they wouldn't otherwise continue to produce it - I think that's something people keep forgetting when complaining about it. They're not just producing stuff willy nilly, it must make money for them. The issue I have is that it's at the expense of system stuff, which is what I'm personally most interested in. I think a better ratio would be nice. Then, if we got 3-4 clone sets in a year, we could ALSO get 3-4 OT sets in a year, and 3-4 D+/sequel sets in a year.

I don't entirely know if this is unpopular, or what this classifies as, but just something I'd thought of recently - a lot of people in my generation (older Gen Z/younger Millenials) talk about the era from roughly 2005-2012 as sort of a "golden age" when LEGO was more innovative and better than it is today. While I have a lot of nostalgia for this era, because it was when I grew up, the more I think about, it this was actually LEGO playing it way, way, way safer with their ideas. My thinking is that, because it was when LEGO had recovered from near-bankruptcy, they were taking things much safer. 2005 is an interesting start date, because it was when City started, replacing the sort of intermediate themes between Town and City (World City, some of the more <insert that tiresome argument> Town/City-esque stuff, etc). At this point, basically every original LEGO theme was based on some sort of previous theme, specifically ones that had success before. I've gone through each year and put it the spoiler just to save space.

This actually looks quite cool, I expected it to be ridiculous (and it is!) but it works!